Micro-fluid ejection heads are useful for ejecting a variety of fluids including inks, cooling fluids, pharmaceuticals, lubricants and the like. A widely used micro-fluid ejection head is in an ink jet printer. Ink jet printers continue to be improved as the technology for making the micro-fluid ejection heads continues to advance. New techniques are constantly being developed to provide low cost, highly reliable printers which approach the speed and quality of laser printers. An added benefit of ink jet printers is that color images can be produced at a fraction of the cost of laser printers with as good or better quality than laser printers. All of the foregoing benefits exhibited by ink jet printers have also increased the competitiveness of suppliers to provide comparable printers and supplies for such printers in a more cost efficient manner than their competitors.
Micro-fluid ejection devices may be provided with permanent, semi-permanent, or replaceable ejection heads. Since the ejection heads require unique and relatively costly manufacturing techniques, some ejection devices are provided with permanent or semi-permanent ejection heads. In order to protect the ejection heads for long term use filtration structures are used between a fluid supply cartridge and the ejection heads to remove particles which may clog microscopic fluid flow paths in the ejection heads. Conventional filtration structures include multiple components that must be precisely assembled to a filtered fluid reservoir adjacent to an ejection head. Because of the multiple components required for the filtration structures, assembly of the structures is time consuming and requires relatively wide manufacturing tolerances.
In view of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the disclosure provide a micro-fluid ejection head structure and a method for assembling a micro-fluid ejection head structure. The micro-fluid ejection head structure includes a molded, non-fibrous wicking and filtration structure. The wicking and filtration structure is fixedly attached to a filtered fluid reservoir of the micro-fluid ejection head structure for flow of filtered fluid to a micro-fluid ejection head attached to the head structure.
Another exemplary embodiment of the disclosure provides a method for assembling a micro-fluid ejection head structure for a fluid supply cartridge. The method includes providing a molded, non-fibrous wicking and filtration structure. The wicking and filtration structure is fixedly attached to a filtered fluid reservoir of the micro-fluid ejection head structure for flow of filtered fluid from a supply cartridge to a micro-fluid ejection head attached to the head structure.
Yet another exemplary embodiment of the disclosure provides a fluid supply cartridge carrier. The fluid supply cartridge carrier includes a permanent or semi-permanent micro-fluid ejection head structure. The ejection head structure contains a micro-fluid ejection head, a filtered fluid reservoir in fluid flow communication with the micro-fluid ejection head, and a wicking and filtration structure fixedly attached to the filtered fluid reservoir for flow of filtered fluid to the filtered fluid reservoir. The wicking and filtration structure includes a molded, non-fibrous wicking and filtration element.
An advantage of the exemplary embodiments described herein is that a unitary component may be used in place of multiple components to provide comparable or better protection of micro-fluid ejection heads. Use of a unitary component eliminates several steps required for assembling a wicking and filtration structure to a fluid reservoir of a micro-fluid ejection head structure. The unitary component also reduces the tolerance stack up compared to a multi-part component tolerance stack up since the unitary component is specified to a single tolerance.